US Patents

Acquiring US patents give an inventor exclusive rights on the invention. Others could not make, use, import, sell or offer to sell the invention without the inventor's permission. US patents can be obtained on "inventions". Inventions include any new and useful machine, process, article of manufacture, composition of matter (such as a new chemical composition), and improvements on any of these things. Virtually anything that is new and made by man is subject matter eligible for patent protection.
There are three types of US patents granted by the US Patents Office, these are: utility patents, design patents and plant patents. There are specific requirements for the US patents applications. US patents application must include a specification, including a description and claim(s); an oath or declaration identifying the applicant(s) believing to be the original inventor(s); a drawing when necessary; and the filing fee. Prior to 1870, a model of the invention was required as well. Today, a model is almost never required. To be patentable, an invention essentially must be: (1) useful, (2) novel, and (3) nonobvious. The novelty requirement is often consider to be the threshold test for patentability.
Certain things have been held not to qualify for patent protection. Trademarks, which are words or symbols that identify the origin of goods and services, cannot be protected by patents. Other things that would not qualify for patent protection are abstract ideas, pure mathematical manipulations of numbers and laws or products of nature. Computer software inventions are often patentable.
Inventors can make a search of patents already granted, text books, journals and other publications to be sure that someone else has not already invented their idea. They may hire someone to do it for them or may do the search themselves at the Public Search Room of the US Patents and Trademark Office in Arlington, Virginia, on the PTO web page on the Internet, or at one of the US Patents and Trademark Depository Libraries across the country.

The cost of US patents can be very high for some people although fees for the patent application, issue and maintenance fees and other related fees are reduced by 50 percent when the applicant is a small business or individual inventor. You can expect to pay the US Patents and Trademark Office a minimum of about $4,000 over the life of the patent. In the U.S. a patent application must be filed within one year of the date the invention is first publicly disclosed or offered for sale. If the patent application is not filed within this one year period, the patent rights are forever dedicated to the public.